Pure Carbon Nanotubes: No Adverse Health Effects

Pure Carbon Nanotubes Pass First In Vivo Test. ‘In the first experiments of their kind, researchers have determined that carbon nanotubes injected directly into the bloodstream of research lab animals cause no immediate adverse health effects and circulate for more than one hour before they are removed by the liver. These findings are from the first in vivo animal study of polymer-coated carbon nanotubes, a nanomaterial that researchers hope will prove useful in diagnosing and treating disease.“We sampled tissues from a dozen organs, and found significant amounts of nanotubes only in the liver,” said team leader Bruce Weisman, Ph.D., of Rice University. “The liver naturally removes drugs or compounds from the blood, so this is what we expected to find.”The study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, tracked where the nanotubes went within 24 hours of being injected. The investigators were able to follow the nanotubes thanks to the intrinsic near-infrared fluorescence of the nanotubes. These studies also revealed trace amounts of nanotubes in the kidneys – another common expulsion route for drugs. There was no evidence that nanotubes remained in other tissues in the body.’